27th December 2023
So post Christmas, we have daily been taking apart Cottonwood Home - a shop we have been running for the last four and a half years. We were expecting it to be a bit more emotionally cathartic than it has felt so far. What it has been, has been a relief. We have been more than ready to make this move for such a long time. There is always the chance some relatively minor thing will trip switch the emotional floodgates, of course. Other shop keepers in The Courtyard are currently more upset about us leaving than we are.
Today, it was boxing up the remaining stock and taking it home. There is going to be a period post shop, of us working out how best to store this stock. But this week it really is about getting it moved, and arranging the garage in a provisional way. I imagine we will evolve refinements as we learn what uses the space best.
29th December 2023
There have been points during the dismantling that have caused an undue amount of anxiety beforehand. Hubby got really wound up by how difficult or not it might be to take the shop facia boards down. I lost sleep over how long repainting the outside paintwork would take. None of which proved as troublesome or as time consuming as we were anticipating. I guess these are focuses for the generalised stress that exists around taking apart something we once loved, and put so much of ourselves in. There have been points in the last few days when working surrounded by its chaos and uncertainty the shop space has felt quite overwhelming.
A particular bet noire of mine has been the garage. It so easily gets into a space constricted mess. How will all the stuff still in the shop go in there? Its a genuine concern. But one way or another, we have so far seemed to find a way. A current flurry of worry is over how to store the shop fittings we have been unable to sell. We are most likely going to donate these to The Benjamin Foundation, but they'll have to be stored in the garage in the meantime. How do we do that without completely gumming up the works ?
30th December 2023
Yesterday we repainted the exterior paintwork. Hubby found the correct colour match paint in the landlords store room. It's an old fashioned gloss paint, that even in the Summer would take an age to dry. As we are on the cusp of deep Winter I was concerned about how long it might take. We left the shop door open last night, not wanting to close it til it was fully touch dry. And this morning some of the door is now touch dry, but the windows still have a way to go.
Today will be our last day clearing out and cleaning the shop. Two or three car trips will do it. We are going in early today to do a couple of big car fill ups. Hoping to wrap up by midday. Then tomorrow do a final meter reading, hand the shop keys over, then take the rest of New Year's Eve off.
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